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Denver and the West

Combating obesity on several fronts helps reverse trend in Colorado

By Ally MarottiThe Denver Post

Posted:
08/07/2013 12:01:00 AM MDT

Updated:
08/07/2013 08:38:39 AM MDT

Fitness instructor Staci Lifshen, who owns JumpBunch Denver, leads a class of preschool children in Littleton on Tuesday. The kids were using dynabands to improve strength and muscle development and to increase flexibility. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

Colorado was one of three states where obesity rates among low-income preschoolers increased between 2009 and 2011, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but state officials say they managed to reverse that trend last year.

Obesity in low-income 2- to 4-year-olds increased to 10 percent from 9 percent in Colorado between 2009 and 2011, according to the CDC's study, which didn't incorporate information for 2012.

However, Tracy Miller, a specialist in early-childhood obesity prevention for the state health department's Prevention Services Division, said rates had dropped to 8.4 percent in 2012.

"We're really taking a multisector approach in dropping obesity before it even begins in our young kids," Miller said.

Among the 43 states and territories included in the study, there were at least slight declines in obesity rates in 18 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, signaling improvement nationally after years of rising rates. The CDC researchers theorized that the improvement could be attributed to an increase in breast-feeding, fewer calories from sugary beverages, changes to federal nutrition programs for women and children, and programs that encourage physical activity.

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Still, among preschoolers, 1 in 8 are obese in the U.S., and it's even more common among blacks (1 in 5) and Latinos (1 in 6), the federal researchers found.

Childhood obesity is such a vast problem that attacking it from one side or another would be ineffective, Miller said. That's why the state health department tries several approaches, from working with public health professionals to figuring out how to encourage workplaces to allow breast-feeding.

"It takes all of us to address this issue," Miller said. "Over the past three to five years, people have really come together in coordinated efforts ... to contribute to the fight."

The CDC study attributed the national decrease in low-income preschool obesity, in part, to recent changes in the Women, Infants and Children food and nutrition program that increased access to fruits and vegetables.

Colorado WIC director Patricia Daniluk said Colorado was one of the first states to implement those changes in 2009.

WIC helps reach women, infants and children at a time crucial to development, but Daniluk said it's not enough.

"I do think that WIC and the food that we provide and the counseling that we provide is certainly contributing," she said. "But it's going to take more than that to really continue to make changes."

Although Colorado's low-income preschool-obesity rate was on the rise for several years, it was below the national average.

In 2011, 14.4 percent of the country's low-income 2- to 4-year-olds were obese, down from 14.9 percent in 2009, according to the CDC.

Dr. James Hill, executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado, said the state is the leanest among adults, but it's gaining weight each year.

"It's sort of like a canary in the coal mines," he said. "If preschool kids are getting significant amounts of obesity, then you can be sure older kids are getting it."

Everyone comes into the world moving, Hill said, but for some reason they learn to be stationary.

Staci Lifshen is trying to combat that.

"I think kids have kind of forgotten that sports are fun," said Lifshen, whose company JumpBunch Denver partners with schools and recreation centers to try to introduce kids to a lifelong love of sports and fitness.

"It's their instinct to be active, but for some reason that has shifted over the past few years, and it's become almost like a chore," she said. "We're trying to reshift that."

Defenses against preschool obesity must come from every influence on a child's life, Hill said.

"If we're going to take this thing on, everybody has a role, every sector has a role," Hill said. "The way to do it is not to blame people for being part of the problem, but to engage people as being part of the solution."

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